World News Quick Take

Agencies

AFGHANISTAN

Suicide attack kills 11

Taliban fighters killed at least 11 people and wounded 22 in a suicide bomb attack and gunbattle at a police station in Jalalabad City yesterday morning, police and health officials said. The assault began with two explosions just before dawn targeting the police station and a nearby square, close to compounds used by international organizations including the UN. NATO-led forces sent helicopter gunships to support local security forces as a fire fight raged for more than three hours before they were able to clear the area of the remaining militants. Police said they shot dead six Taliban. A police district chief was among the dead, Nangahar Province police chief Fazel Ahmad Shirzad said. The Taliban claimed responsibility in a text message sent to media.

SYRIA

More chemicals removed

Nearly half of Syria’s declared chemical weapons have been shipped out of the country after two more cargoes were loaded onto vessels over the past week, the international team overseeing the disarmament process said. The joint mission of the UN and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said in a statement late on Wednesday that 45.6 percent of the chemicals had been removed from Latakia port for destruction outside the country. Damascus agreed to give up its chemical weapons program last year in a deal with Russia and the US, but it is several months behind schedule and risks missing a June 30 deadline for the chemicals to be destroyed.

AUSTRALIA

Man jailed for tourist abuse

A magistrate sentenced a man to 21 days in jail for an abusive tirade against a French tourist on a Melbourne bus, in which he told her to “speak English or die,” reports said yesterday. The young woman, Fanny Desaintjores, was with friends on the bus and singing in French when David Graham launched the verbal attack in November 2012. During his outburst, which was filmed by a passenger with a mobile phone, Graham said he would cut off Desaintjores’ breasts, and made insulting comments about her appearance. Magistrate Jennifer Anne Benn Goldsbrough said the comments were “overwhelmingly sexist, misogynist remarks and occasionally racist,” the Age newspaper reported online.

IRAQ

Twelve die in suicide blast

An overnight suicide attack inside a cafe in Baghdad killed at least 12 people and wounded 38, officials said. The bomber set off his explosives-laden belt among customers who were watching a soccer game on a cafe television in the western Washash neighborhood the night before, two police officers said. A medical official confirmed the casualty figures. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

TURKEY

Train crash kills nine

At least nine people were killed and five injured yesterday when a train crashed into a bus carrying workers in the southern city of Mersin, local news agencies reported. The minibus was carrying the workers to an industrial zone on the edge of the city when it was hit on a railway crossing by a commuter train traveling between Mersin and the neighboring province of Adana. Video footage on the Dogan News Agency Web site showed the crushed minibus on the side of the tracks and medics trying to reach the injured. State broadcaster TRT said 10 people were killed.